L2 lexical development and the lexical network model: The case of basic verbs of perception

This study deals with the process of lexical development by Japanese learners of English in instructional settings. A test was designed to measure their inter-lexical competence (i.e. the ability to use semantically related words differently) about the English basic verbs of sensory perception (e.g. see, listen, smell), which constitutes a conceptual lexical network. Three hundred nineteen university students of different levels of English proficiency participated in this study. The overall results showed that Japanese university students had difficulty in the selective use of basic verbs of perception, and we identified some specific problematic areas. The performance of the participants was discussed in terms of a learning strategy – i.e. the search-translation-equivalent strategy. Pedagogical implications were discussed with reference to core schemas and lexical networks.